Spring sports still far from up and running for high schools

Turns out the return to after-school sports and activities at the province’s public high schools is not so clear cut.

About 60% of teachers will wait for tangible results from ­discussions with the province before returning to coaching and supervising clubs, Ken Coran, Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) president, said Monday in Toronto.

About 20% likely will never return and the rest never ­supported the withdrawal in the first place, he said.

Ontario’s public high school teachers’ union has given its members the OK to ­voluntarily return to after-school activities, but it’s too soon to say what, if any, spring sports will be available.

“We’re gathering information from our athletic directors and principals in terms of participation,” Thames Valley District school board official Laura Elliott said Monday.

Now it remains to be seen how many teacher-coaches from the public side are willing to return.

Elliott, the board’s executive superintendent of program services, said it’s hoped an answer to that will be reached by the end of March, but added nothing has been decided as far as a minimum percentage of teams needed to get Thames Valley Regional Athletics leagues back up and running.

“We’re more or less ready for the spring season because that planning was all done beforehand,” she said.

“What we need to do now is have a discussion with our ADs (athletic directors) and see if they’re willing to come to the table and say, ‘We’re willing to get back at it,’ ” Elliott said. “But this (the OSSTF announcement) leaves the door open a little bit more.”

And while there is some hope for the spring season, there’s “no chance whatsoever” of things changing for winter sports, WOSSAA executive director Steve Voros said.

That means teams from the London District Catholic school board still active won’t be allowed to advance to various OFSAA championships that begin Monday with the boys’ basketball and girls’ volleyball tournaments, he said.

Voros reiterated it’s a WOSSAA bylaw preventing teams from member leagues that have been shut down from advancing to OFSAA that is keeping the Catholic schools from going.

Other associations are sending reps, he said, because leagues within those associations weren’t shut down.

“I understand the optics,” Voros said of the situation that has angered coaches, students and parents at Catholic schools. “But we were put in a bad position and there’s absolutely nothing we could have done.”

He said the bylaw could be changed down the road, “but it has to be brought up and done in the right way” and not on the fly.

But with registration for next week’s OFSAA tournament closing at midnight Tuesday, there’s still hope, said Ed DeDecker, a superintendenent with the London District Catholic board.

“We remain convinced that if there’s a will, there’s a way and we’ll continue to fight for the teams that are still participating,” he said.

“We know we’re absolutely in the last minutes and we know it will be difficult for the conveners of the OFSAA tournaments, but we’re just asking WOSSAA to provide those entries and we’ll help OFSAA to come up with solutions.”

The Thames Valley District board oversees Thames Valley Region Athletics, the governing body for high school sports in London, Middlesex, Oxford and Elgin.

When the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation directed its members to withdraw from coaching and supervising clubs in early December, TVRA shut down, as did the Huron-Perth Conference; the two make up WOSSAA.

Coran stressed the decision to return is voluntary.

“Because of how this whole process unfolded, right from the start, some people turned off immediately and said, ‘If we’re not going to be treated respectfully, we’re not going to do this anymore,’ ” Coran said. “It doesn’t mean we don’t like the students.”

OSSTF agreed last Friday to end a ban on extracurricular activities that it adopted in response to Bill 115, legislation introduced and used to impose teacher contracts with frozen wages and the end of sick-day banking.

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